• Introduction
• Meetings
• UKEMS Committee
• IGG News
• MEG News
• EEMS News
• Financial Matters
• Other Matters
• More Meetings of Interest
• Current Committee Members
• Swansea 2000, UKEMS Annual Meeting
• Nominations For Vice-President and for Treasurer-Elect of UKEMS (December 1999, for July 2000 new members)

Included with this Newsletter is an outline programme for the Millennium meeting in Swansea. The "Careers in Genetic Toxicology Discussion Group for young scientists" on the Sunday evening provides an opportunity for students, post-docs and young technicians to hear more senior scientists from Pharmaceutical, CRO and academic backgrounds talking about career and job prospects available to young people in our field of interest. Drinks and snacks will be provided, but we hope you will come for the discussion, too.

At last months committee meeting, we discussed how important it is for students to get to the annual scientific meetings, and decided that registration for Swansea 2000 will be free to all students and young scientists who wish to attend. Furthermore, any applications from students for travel bursaries to this, to EEMS in Budapest, and to any other relevant meetings, will be considered seriously, particularly if the applicant is presenting a poster or paper at the meeting.

At the September IGG Committee meeting, Julie Clements was elected as Chairperson – thanks are due to the outgoing Peter Jenkinson for his contribution over the past few years. At the time of writing, the next IGG meeting at the Royal Society of Medicine on 6 December is fast approaching. The theme will be "Cytotoxicity in vitro", with emphasis on the mammalian cell assays. The day will begin with some general talks on mechanisms of cytotoxicity and then we will compare and contrast the measures of cytotoxicity used in various genotoxicity assays. A questionnaire has prompted an excellent response and several laboratories have data to present so this promises to be a lively session. Different approaches to measurement of cytotoxicity, and interpretation of data which are generated at highly cytotoxic concentrations, will be covered. Towards the end of the day there will be an opportunity to hear about new or alternative ways of measuring cytotoxicity.

Other issues to note: The May meeting on "Ethical use of animals in genotoxicity testing" has stimulated some interesting discussion. IGG members have also provided feedback on a variety of issues to COM (Committee on Mutagenicity, an Advisory committee of the UK Department of Health) who are currently revising their guidelines. At the UKEMS Committee meeting last month it was decided that a co-ordinated response will be prepared for the end of January 2000 and it is likely that working groups will need to be established to formulate new UKEMS guidelines on the in vitro micronucleus and COMET assays.

Finally, several key speakers from international regulatory authorities have agreed to speak at the session being organised by IGG on "Worldwide genotoxicology testing strategies", part of the UKEMS 2000 meeting in Swansea.

The IGG committee are always keen to hear your thoughts or ideas eg is there a survey you would find useful or an issue that could be resolved by a small, focussed collaborative study? Julie can be reached by email at julie.clements@covance.com

The programme for the MEG workshop on Hazard and Risk at the Millennium meeting in Swansea (Monday 3 July 2000) has now been finalised and includes what should be an exciting and stimulating range of speakers. Dr Frank Duckworth (Royal Statistical Society) will speak on comparison of risks in our lives, followed by Prof Janet Bainbridge (University of Teeside) on the safety of genetically-modified food. Dr Joellen Lewtas (University of Washington, USA) and Prof David Kay (University of Aberystwyth) will talk about risks from air pollution and water respectively. The final invited speaker is Dr Jerry Rice (IARC, Lyon, France) who will show how data on mechanisms of carcinogenesis can be used for carcinogenic risk evaluation. The MEG AGM will be held during this meeting.

The most ambitious MEG meeting in 2000 is a BACR/UKEMS Molecular Epidemiology Group Special Conference on 'Applicability and relevance of methods used for molecular cancer epidemiology'. This will be held on 21-23 September 2000 at the beautiful location of the Low Wood Hotel, Lake Windermere, Cumbria. We are hoping for 75-100 participants. The speakers are all internationally recognised and most have already accepted invitations to attend. This workshop will be held in the style of a Gordon conference and should combine excellent science with an opportunity to enjoy the attractions of the Lake District. Further information is at the following web-site, which is available through the UKEMS' home page.

The 1-day MEG Winter meeting in 2000 is entitled ‘Infections’ and will be held at the Scientific Societies' Lecture Theatre, London on Monday 4 December. A programme is currently being prepared. Plans are still underway for participation in an international MEG meeting to be held in Italy, probably in the first week of May 2001.

For further information on any MEG activities, please contact Jenny Duckmanton, Dept of Biology, University of York, PO Box 373, York YO10 5YW - email jmd4@york.ac.uk

At the last business council meeting in Copenhagen it was decided to abolish the International Scientific Program Committee. The objective of this committee was to advise the organizers of the annual meeting as to the scientific content, but it was not effective as an advisory committee. For the future meetings, a scientific committee will consist of representatives for the local committee, the EEMS past president and chairmen of the relevant speciality sections. It was advised that national societies could influence the program by suggesting themes, symposia or specific speakers to the program. As chairman of the committee Herman Autrup I would like EEMS Councillors, on behalf of the national society, to make suggestions for the next annual meeting in Belgium in 2001. Proposals should be submitted to Professor Autrup before January 15.

A reminder, too, that we have a new EEMS Councillor in Barry Elliott, who has taken over this role from Jim Parry. If you have general comments, questions or suggestions about our field, or EEMS itself, please don’t hesitate to contact Barry. He can be reached by e-mail at barry.elliott@CTL.astrazeneca.com or by fax on 01625 517 911.

Other creative uses of our funding will continue to be discussed by the UKEMS committee and any suggestions will be gratefully received. Finally, another reminder that we have reviewed the conditions for sustaining membership. The annual fee will now be £500 and each Sustaining Member organisation will receive space on the UKEMS website, the opportunity to place a one-page flier in each Newsletter mailing, three free registrations at the annual meeting, acknowledgement in the meeting programme and, of course, the highly prized certificate.

Steve Dean (Secretary)

19-23 March 2000, Philadelphia, USA, 39^th Annual Meeting of the Society of Toxicology. (Contact SOT, 1767 Business Centre Drive, Suite 302, Reston, Virginia 22090-5332; Tel: +1 703 438 3115, Fax: +1 703 438 3113).

26-28 March 2000, University of York, British Toxicology Society Spring Meeting. (Contact Dr TJB Gray, Meetings Secretary, Sanofi Research, Willowburn Avenue, Alnwick, Northumberland NE66 2JH, England. Tel: +44 (0)1665 607370; Fax: +44 (0)1665 607510).

8-13 April 2000, New Orleans, USA, EMS Annual Meeting. (Contact Jim Tucker, e-mail: tucker@llnl.gov and website at http://www.ems-us.org/program.html.)

2-5 July 2000, Swansea, UKEMS Millennium Meeting, with sessions organised by both IGG and MEG (Contact Jim Parry, e-mail: jmp@swansea.ac.uk).

10-14 July 2000, Stresa, Lake Maggiore, Italy 13^th International Symposium on microsomes and drug oxidations, MDO 2000. (Contact Prof Francesco De Matteis, Fax: +39 011 670 77 88; e-mail: fdem@medfarm.unlto.it).

22-26 August 2000, 30^th annual EEMS meeting, Budapest. Contact Diamond Congress Ltd, EEMS 2000, H-1027 Budapest, Fo u. 68, Hungary. Phone: +36-1-214 7701; Fax: +36-1-201 2680, E-mail: diamond.eft@mtesz.hu and the conference homepage is located at: http://www.mtesz.hu/tagegy/diamond

17-20 September 2000, London, EUROTOX 2000, the 38th Congress of the European Societies of Toxicology. (Contact the EUROTOX 2000 secretariat, Tel +44 20 8661 0877, Fax +44 20 8661 9036, e-mail: info@conforg.com, or Alan Boobis, e-mail: aboobis@rpms.ac.uk.).

21-23 September 2000, Lake District, MEG/BACR Special Conference on Applicability and relevance of methods used for cancer epidemiology. (Contact Jenny Duckmanton, e-mail: jmd4@york.ac.uk).

4 December 2000, London, MEG Winter meeting on the topic of infections. (Contact Jenny Duckmanton, e-mail: jmd4@york.ac.uk).

26-29 March 2001, San Francisco, USA, 40^th SOT.

May 2001, Rome, Italy, AACR MEG and European MEG joint meeting (Contact Jenny Duckmanton, e-mail: jmd4@york.ac.uk).

 4-6 July 2001, Nottingham, UKEMS Annual Scientific Meeting (Contact Mike O’Donovan, e-mail: mike.o’donovan@charnwood.gb.astra.com).

8-13 July 2001, Brisbane, Australia, 9^th International Congress of Toxicology (Contact ASCEPT Secretariat, 145 Macquarie Street, Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia, Tel: +61 2 2565456; Fax: +61 2 2523310).

2001, ICEM, Japan.

18-22 March, 2002, Nashville, USA, 41^st SOT.

1-3 July 2002, Plymouth, UKEMS Annual Scientific Meeting (Contact Awadhesh Jha)

July 2003, Aberdeen, EEMS Annual Scientific Meeting (Contact Andrew Collins)

2005, ICEM, USA.